BYU announces 2014 football schedule with few surprises

BYU's football season in 2014 will start one day later than originally thought.

That tidbit and the Houston game being moved from Sept. 27 to Sept. 11 (a Thursday) were about the only surprises as BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe announced the schedule on Monday night.

The Cougars were originally scheduled to open at Connecticut on Aug. 28, a Thursday. But that game has been moved to Friday, Aug. 29 and will be televised by ESPN. It was moved by ESPN, Holmoe said on BYUtv Monday night.

The schedule features teams from 10 states and seven conferences: American Athletic, ACC, Big 12, Pac-12, Conference USA, Mountain West and Mid-Eastern.

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p class="TEXT_w_Indent"> It does not feature Utah, BYU's longtime rival.

"I am pleased with the way this schedule came together. I think it has good balance," Holmoe said. "I like playing in different regions of the country, including several places we've never been."

ESPN will also televise the Sept. 11 game at LES against Houston. That home opener comes just five days after BYU plays at Texas on Sept. 6.

Other opponents that will visit LES include Virginia Utah State, Nevada, UNLV and Savannah State.

Holmoe said he was close to lining up an FBS (Division I) opponent for Nov. 22, which is Senior Night, but couldn't quite get a deal done and the Cougars had to grab Savannah State, an FCS school.

The athletic director, who will speak to reporters at noon on Tuesday to answer questions about the schedule and other BYU sports-related topics, said the weekends won't change from this schedule released Monday, but one or two more games might be moved away from Saturday to Thursday or Friday, depending on television interest and desires.

The schedule will take BYU to six different states, and the Cougars will rack up 14,956 round-trip miles. Only Hawaii will log more miles, according to the BYU release.

Holmoe also spoke briefly on BYUtv about the Cougars' bowl situation for 2014, which has yet to be announced. He said he is close to working out a deal with a bowl and a conference, and could have an announcement regarding that soon.